Category: Sydney Public School Information

Top ranking NSW Sydney Secondary Schools (Non-government and Private) for the year 2019. The result is a combination of both year 7 and 9 numbers from NAPLAN. One thing to note is some schools listed have very low enrolment number so the result is possibly not a reliable reflection of the entire school’s performance and historically can have big fluctuations as well. This is why I also included the enrolment number here, some school got big enrolment number as well due to they are classified as combined with both primary and secondary components counted together. One more thing to note is that the percentage is based on the number one primary school regardless of school sector Australia wide. Just so to be clear that the particular school is James Ruse Agricultural High School for the year of 2019.

Top ranking NSW Sydney Secondary Schools (Government and Public) for the year of 2019. The result is a combination of both year 7 and 9 numbers from NAPLAN. One thing to note is some schools listed have very low enrolment number so the result is possibly not a reliable reflection of the entire school’s performance and historically can have big fluctuations as well. This is why I also included the enrolment number here, some school got big enrolment number as well due to they are classified as combined with both primary and secondary components counted together. One more thing to note is that the percentage is based on the number one primary school regardless of school sector Australia wide. Just so to be clear that the particular school is James Ruse Agricultural High School for the year of 2019.

Top 100 Ranking South Australia Adelaide Secondary Schools For The Year Of 2019 (Government and Non-Government). Please note due to the particular nature of South Australian schools where primary schools are from kindergarten to year 7 where secondary schools are from year 8 to 12. So the ranking of South Australian secondary schools is based on year 9 numbers only.

I just saw this on the news today that a year 11 student from Epping Boys High School was diagnosed with Coronavirus. As a result of this, the entire school is closed on this Friday as ordered NSW Health minister.

Currently, this is just a one day closure, all students and staff are asked to self isolate for the weekend. Further announcements on the future steps regarding this will be announced over the weekend.

This is the 25th case in NSW and number is going up rapidly so it is safe to say community spread has been going on for a while. A lot of new cases are popping in Northern Sydney around Ryde, Macquarie Park area. Just mentioned Epping Boys High School is around this area as well.

Things are deteriorating pretty fast and there almost certainly will be more cases popping up and in schools as well. So I would expect to see more school closure in the next few weeks, particularly around the Northern Sydney area. With the rate things are going, I would not be surprised to see individual school closure even before the Autumn holiday in April.

If things are deteriorating at the current rate, we almost certainly will be starting to see mass school closure in parts of Sydney and other areas of Australia as well.

So basically let’s all buckle down and this is going to be a real wide ride. I think we need to do what is needed to slow this Coronavirus down to avoid overloading the hospitals. So if school closure will be required then so be it. At this moment widespread school closure is premature, but with the rate things are changing, we may have to make that decision within the next few weeks.

The newly reopened Arthur Phillip High School which is a high rise school with a 17-floor building. This is first of the many and with the pressure of the ever-expanding population, high rise schools will be a more common sight in the coming years.

Personally I prefer schools that are only 4 to 5 floor at max, this way it can still easily traversed by stairs rather than having to rely fully on elevators. The newly built Arthur Phillip High School having to stagger each year’s recess and break time. I guess this is to avoid crowding with the stairs and elevators. I am sure most of you had some painful experience with waiting for elevators. Crowded stairs also are really dangerous if not managed correctly.

Arthur Phillip High School is will also have an open-plan environment, this one is very interesting and can potentially a detriment. Anyway, it is good to see the NSW State government making steady investment and progress in dealing with the exploding student population.

There had been a lot of controversy with the NSW Selective High Schools and with a large number of articles plus opinions attack its existence, also whether it serves the intended purpose.

The main point of the attack is that Selective High Schools students are mainly from the high social-economical background rather than serving the general population as intend.

First, the main criteria published in the Myschool website is called ICSEA which is called Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage, the main items in this index are parent’s education background and geographic location of the school. Whether the family is rich or poor has no direct bearing in this index. I have done a number of previous blog entries on this topic already, so I will not go into this in more detail.

NSW Department of Education’s own research that only 10 per cent of students in selective schools had parents who did not have post-school education.

There were also few students from the city’s richest suburbs such as Bellevue Hill, Double Bay or Milsons Point, suggesting families in those areas are still opting for private schools.

While selective schools have high rates of socio-educational advantage – which means students’ parents are educated, a key factor in schooling success – the figures show that does not necessarily equate to wealth.

Please note, what shown above is pretty much what anybody who had experience with selective high schools will tell you as well. This shows the students that study and apply themselves will get in rather than determine by how much money their parents have. We should be encouraging health and fair competitions, rather than create artificial access restriction that disadvantages one group or another.

For all the bad raps that standardized tests are getting these days, they are still the fairest and best way, for now, to provide opportunities to people that deserve them. That could be Selective High School tests and HSC or other similar tests.

We do not need to destroy what has up to now an avenue for children of middle-class parents to advance with their aspirations by crashing the existing selective high school systems. The reason why some parents are pushing their kids into selective high schools is that they themselves are a big beneficiary of education and understand what a good education can do for you.

As a society, we need to emphasise the benefit of education and continuingly promote it and never let up. Particularly with more automation entering Australia and the world, we will need more highly skilled people, a good and quality education is the only way to achieve that.

It is well known that NSW is experiencing a very significant enrolment surge in the last few years. This is well known in the communities as well with overcrowding in the local schools and many also filled with demountable classrooms.

Enrolments in public schools are continuing to grow to record levels. This year, there are expected to be 815,000 students in the sector, an increase of about 5000 on last year and almost 73,000 more than 10 years ago.

While the student census across the three sectors will not be held until schools open, the independent sector also expects further growth in enrolments. Between 2017 and 2018, enrolments grew by about 4500 students.

The public sector in Australia has recently reversed decades of shrinking enrolment percentage and starting to gain a larger share of student enrolment population. Also, most of the increases are happening at the younger end of the school population. Given the level of population growth due to both natural birth and immigration, this phenomenon is pretty much expected.

There are a number of new public schools has been planned or being completed all over Sydney. The northern suburbs around the T9 Northern rail line had seen a major increase in the population and resulting in many cases where severally overcrowded local public schools.

The new Smalls Road Public School located in the suburb of Ryde is opening next year and accepting the kindergarten class for 2020. It will be accepting all classes from kindergarten to year six in 2021. With the opening of this new school, all surrounding school’s catchment received a major revamp. For year one to six, the current school catchment will stand as it is and kindergarten enrolment will be using the newly updated catchment.

All together all the following public school’s catchment has updated.

Eastwood Public School
Denistone East Public School
Kent Road Public School
Meadowbank Public School
North Ryde Public School
Ryde East Public School
Ryde Public School
Putney Public School
Truscott Street Public School
West Ryde Public School

The existing 2019 school catchment is as following

2019 Northern Sydney Catchment around Ryde Area

2020 and 2021 school catchment of the new and affected school catchment as in the following screenshot and the updated map.

Smalls Road and Surround Public School Catchment for 2020

Updated interactive map as following

The most common name used by the NSW Department of Education is called “catchment” which refer to that students resides in a particular area is guaranteed a position in specific schools. When discussed from the perspective of a particular school is often referred to as one of the following terms.

I will quote a few lines to summarize the article to give you an idea of what has been proposed.

The biggest rethink of the curriculum in 30 years also suggests paring back primary school content to focus on literacy, numeracy and emotional development, more minimum standards, and a restructure of the syllabus around attainment levels rather than year levels.

In early years, literacy, numeracy and social and emotional development should be “prioritised over other areas of the curriculum and resourced to ensure every student is on track in their learning,” the report said.

Students in the middle years of school should study and meet minimum standards in a “specified range of subjects” that would include knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. They should also study a language other than English in primary school.

The primary and secondary curriculum should be restructured around so-called ‘attainment levels’, which would create a series of benchmarks against which students’ long-term progress could be measured, independent of their age or year.

smh.com.au

Let me use my take, this is simplification and refocus of the current syllabus of both primary and secondary level. I will throw in my opinion based on my own experience of the NSW education system.

First, at the primary level, I think a pretty good job has been done on the literacy side of things. There is a lot of focus from the school put in on the literacy in my kid’s school and similar feedback I get from the other parents in other schools as well. I cannot say the same for the numeracy side of things, there are too many comprehension types of questions and not enough basic skills imparted. Math often turns into a difficult subject for many kids were at the primary level this should not be the case.

Also personally I believe by far the majority of the responsibility for the social and emotional development rests with the parents.

Secondly, at the secondary level, there are definitely too many subjects not enough required basic skills imparted. Up to high school, we should be concentrating on teaching young people the fundamentals like math, computer skills etc.

Take math as an example I meet numerous of people at work that after graduating high school who does not know how to calculate GST portion if something sells for ten dollars. Simple things like that may seem trivial and none important, but can actually make a lot of difference in kind of work people do and how efficient they are done.

Lastly, we need to teach kids how to think and judge things on their own. On subjects such as History, we need to teach the kids why things happen the way they do. Judge and consider things scientifically and objectively.

One thing I noted in the current society of the echoing chamber of the internet, just about everybody just searches and read on the things they like and agrees with which is understandable. However, this merely amplifies one’s existing position rather than understand and learn about another side of the argument. Primary and early secondary schools are rare opportunities that we can shape and influence the kids before they get dump into the deep end of the internet.

This is not just for schools, but mostly for the parents as well, we need to pitch in and do our part if we wish for a better education for our kids.

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